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Rh once more aroused to white heat by the murder of the noted editor James King, of William, Mr. Cole- man was one of the first called upon to lead a new movement, which resulted in the greatest of all vigilance committees. After some urging, he ac- cepted this call and became leader of the executive committee of the revived organization. The work of the great committee cannot be described fully here; but Mr. Coleman's name is connected with all the prominent occurrences for which the com- mittee is responsible. Early in the history of the excitement he was visited at the rooms of the ex- ecutive committee by the governor of California, Neely Johnson, in company with prominent offi- cials, among whom was Gen. William T. Sherman, then major-general of the state militia. The offi- cials came to use their personal influence with Coleman himself, and, with the other members of the body, to prevent any active interference in the course of law. Of this interview Gen. Sherman, in his " Memoirs," has given an account that differs much from the memory of Mr. Coleman himself, and of other committee members. At all events, the negotiations entirely failed, and the committee took for the time almost complete control of the administration of criminal justice in San Francis- co. Both city and state authorities were powerless to hinder them; the committee were strong in the consciousness of the approval of a large majority of good citizens; and the respectable but not very skilfully conducted efforts of the "law and order" party to organize public sentiment against the whole movement proved unavailing. Mr. Coleman throughout endeavored, and generally with suc- cess, to keep the committee from hasty and dan- gerous action, and to avoid collision with U. S. authorities. He had charge of the trials, and di- rected the final executions, of the four murderers whom the organization hanged, the most noted of whom was Casey, the murderer of King. The most serious complication in the movement was the ar- rest and trial of Judge David S. Terry, of the su- preme court of the state, for assault on one of the vigilance police. Terry was finally released with- out punishment. The committee tried to avoid interference in matters of general partisan politics, so far as related to national and state affairs; but after the cessation of the activity of the whole body, in August, 1856, its members still retained enough unity to control municipal polities for many years. While jMr. Coleman's firm continued its San Francisco business, he himself lived in New York from 1857 till 1864; and he was there un- successfully sued by persons who had suffered from the vigilance committee. In 1864 he returned to San Francisco. The history of the vigilance com- mittees, so far as it is now known, may be found in the " Annals of San Francisco " (New York, 1855); Tuthill's " History of California " (San Francisco, 1866); and Hittell's "History of San Francisco" (San Francisco, 1878). But the complete inner his- tory of that strange episode will probably not be written, or at least not published, until the actors have all passed away.

COLES, Abraham, author, b. in Scotch Plains, N. J., 26 Dec, 1813; d. in Monterey, Cal., 3 iMay, 1891. He early began the study of medicine, was graduated at Jefferson medical college, Philadel- phia, in 1835, and settled in Newark, N. J., in 1836. He visited Europe in 1848, and again in 1854. and was in Paris daring the insurrection of June. 1848. of which he wrote an account in a series of letters to the Newark " Advertiser." He has published a volume containing thirteen original translations of the celebrated "hymn "Dies Irai" (New York, 1859); "Stabat Mater Dolo-osa " (1865); " Sta- bat Mater Speciosa " (1866); " Old Gems in New Settings" (1866); "The Microcosm," a physiological poem, read before the New Jersey medical society while he was its president in 1866 (1866; 2d ed., with other poems, 1881); "The Evan- gel inverse," with Scripture text and notes (1874); "The Light of the World " (1884), and various re- views and papers, on literary, medi- cal, and scientific subjects. He has

been engaged on the task of versifying the Psalms. Princeton gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1871.

COLES, Edward, governor of Illinois, b. in Albemarle county, Va., 15 Dec, 1786; d. in Philadel- phia, Pa., 7 July, 1868. He was educated at Hamp- den-Sidney college, and at William and Mary, where he was graduated in 1807. He was private secretary to President Madison from 1810 till 1816, and in 1817 sent on a confidential diplomatic mis- sion to Russia. He returned in 1818, and in 1819 removed to Edwardsville, 111., and freed all the slaves that had been left him by his father, giving to each head of a family 160 acres of land. He was appointed registrar of the U. S. land-office at Edwardsville, and in 1822 was nominated for gov- ernor on account of his well-known anti-slavery sentiments. He served from 1823 till 1826, and during his term of office prevented the pro-slavery party from obtaining control of the state after a bitter and desperate conflict. The history of this remarkable struggle has been written by Elihu B. Washburne (Chicago, 1882). Gov. Coles removed to Philadelphia in 1833, and in 1856 read before the Pennsylvania historical society a " History of the Ordinance of 1787" (Philadelphia, 1856).

COLESWORTHY, Daniel Clement, publisher, b. in Porthvnd, ]Me., 14 July, 1810; d. in Chelsea, Mass., 1 April, 1893. One of his family was a member of the famous " tea-party " in Boston har- bor. He became a printer, and published and edited the Portland " Tribune " in 1840-4, and after 1850 was a well-known Boston bookseller. He published "Sabbath-Sciiool Ilvinns" (1833); " Advice to an Apprentice " (1836); " Opening Buds" (1838); "A Touch at the Times" (1840); " C'hronicles of Casco Bay " (1850); and " A Group of Children, and other Poems " (1865).

COLFAX, Schnyler, statesman, b. in New York city, 23 March, 1823; d. in Mankato. Minn., 13 Jan., 1885. His grandfather was Gen. William Colfax, who commanded the life-guards of Washington throughout the Revolutionary war. His father died a short time before the son's birth, and in 1834 his mother married George W. Matthews. After attending the public schools till he was ten years of age, and serving three years as clerk in his step-father's store, Schuyler went with the family to Indiana in 183G, and settled in New Carlisle, St. Joseph CO., where Mr. ISIatthews soon became postmaster. The boy continued to serve as his clerk, and began a journal to aid himself in composition, contributing at the same time to the county pa-